Life is Good

Elias Canetti once said ~Adults find pleasure in deceiving a child. They consider it necessary, but they also enjoy it. Then children very quickly figure it out and then practice deception themselves.~ Working in the asylum, deception is sometimes the name of the game when you deal with kids who physically, mentally, and emtionally break you down. Its that kind of deception where you pay them back, in a fun way of course, for all the times they don't listen to anything you say, don't tell the truth, and most definitely throw temper tantrums when they don't get their way. Its basically sweet retribution for basically losing your mind to where you and/or your fellow co-workers plan or do do something on the fly merely for entertainment purposes.

One such thing that isn't considered deception but rather something fun to do is announcing to the kids that you've changed your name. Although you haven't legally done it, there comes a point where having your name said repeatedly over and over again can make you lose your mind. Its like a child repeating "momma" and without a doubt moms have a limit to the number of times it is said and so do we. Anyways, its that proverbial go to name that usually is well thought out or picked out at the spur of the moment. Personally speaking, I've changed my name several different times over the years and the name that I've told "my kids" to call me this time is Mr. Ziloolee.

In any case, there comes a point where we will find it necessary deceive them and simply say three words that come in handy when a question is asked which are I don't know. Its primarily a relflex response that comes second nature when you don't have an answer to give to them. Although we may know the answer, we don't want them to know that we know because if they know that we know they will hound us to tell them and you know that is opening up a pandora's box that should be left closed. When you work with kids, especially 6 & 7 year olds, you come across questions that tend to be left to the parents to answer such as the one pertaining to the circle of life and that is all that I am saying.

There comes a point where...I don't want to say we lie but rather give something that seems fairly close to the truth. One such example is canceling a field trip due to unforseen circumstances and when the kids ask where they are going the response is Disneyland. Let me tell you something, no matter how many times I give that response "my kids" actually think they're going until they find out where they are really going. Another example would be giving something as a reward for doing what we ask them to do; yet we don't specifically say what the reward is and its usually a well deserved handshake for a job well done. Hey, it only seems fair as they tend to stretch the truth a bit, so why can't we?

Last Friday, myself and two co-workers deceived the entire 6 & 7 group by merely making up a whole scenerio where something happened and every child was involved somehow. We interrogated every child on what they knew and the funny thing is that they had no idea what they knew and started thinking. What made it even more hilarious was we gave them names that were supposedly involved like Toucan Sam, Snap, Crackle, and Pop, and many more that I can't think of right now. Ultimately, it was a success deception even though three kids did cry, but they laughed afterwards and were part of the lynch mob that beat me up. In the end, when you've sucessfully had a bunch of 6 & 7 year old get punk'd, you simple say to yourself or to your co-workers around you life is good.